Furnace



(No Mode1.)-

J. ALT'MEYER.

FURNAGE.

No 271.393. Patented-Jan. 80, 1883.

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FURNACE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 271,393, dated January 30, 1883.

Application filed August 17, 1882. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JACOB ALTMEYER, of Ben wood, in the county of Marshall and State of West Virginia, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Furnaces; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the same.

My invention relates to furnaces for boilers and like purposes.

The object of the invention is to produce more thorough combustion of the vaporized fuel by means of specially-constructed air-passages and a proper application and mixture of air with the unconsumed carbon vapor, whereby the air in finely-divided streams or jets is admitted directly over and upon the top of the fuel.

My invention consists in the arrangement of air-passages in an arched or inwardly-narrowed and covered fire chamber. over the grate, and, further, in special details of construction.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 represents a puddling-furnace in longitudinal section with my improvement. Fig. 2 represents a cross-section on the lines 00 w, the lintel being shown in dotted lines. Fig.3 represents a horizontal section on line :1 y of Fig. 2.

In furnaces as heretofore constructed the air has been introduced in various ways and various parts of the furnaces. The common method of discharging the air-supply for the combustion of the unconsumed carbon vapors escaping from the fuel has been to admit it from the crown or through the bridge-wall,'or both, said discharge being all in the vicinity of the said bridge-wall. Further, in all furnaces, so far as I am aware, the fire and combustion chamber has been made substantially rectangular, by reason of which there is much useless space in the chamber.

I propose to arch or incline inward both the front and rear and the end walls of the fuelchamber, whereby I obtain better space for the air-heating chambers and utilize all the space within the walls, and at the same time secure another advantage, which will be hereinafter explained in connection with the holes. I prodicated at 3 3.

ceed first to describe the shape of the walls of 0 the puddling-furnace.

Referring to Figs. 1, 2, and 3, A represents the end wall, B the front, and B the rear outer wall, the former having the ordinary hole, I). The inner wall, which immediately surrounds the fire-chamber, is shown at U. It isinclined inward, as shown in Figs. 1 and 2, the former showing the inclination of the end and the latter that of the front and rear walls. These inner walls extend vertically to about the horizontal line of the upper end of the stoke-hole. From this line the wall is inclined inward to the crown D of the furnace. This inclination may be in straight lines or curved, as may be preferred, the same inclination or curve extending around the ends and the frontand rear throughout the extent of the fuel-chamber, as far back as the bridge-wall. This curve or inclination of the wallleaves aspacefor air-chamber E between its outer surface and the inner surface of the outer wall. To this air-heating chamber air is supplied by means of a series of holes, 1 l, in the end wall, which holes extend from the lower part of the air-chamber 0 down through the lintel, and as the ash-pit is open at the end there is free access of air to these holes and through them to that part of the air-chamber at the end. On the front and rear are other holes,-2 2, which extend from the bottom of the front and rear parts of the air-chamber and open into the ash-pit, as shown in Fig. 2. These openings are all supplied with any ordinary suitable dampers, whereby the supply of air to the chamber may be regulated or shut off altogether. This arrangementof the air-passages serves, together with the air-chamber, to reduce the heat of the inner wall and prevent the melting and destruction of the bricks; but the general plan of this part of the apparatus, excepting as it relates to the inclination of the walls, is not new. The main features of novelty, however, excepting this inclination, are in the special arrangement and location of the holes or passages which condnct the air from the air-chamber to the fire-chamber.

They are of small diameter, but are set as thickly as practicable, beginning These holes are inon a horizontal line just above the ordinary upper surface of the coal. In the figures the holes begin on a line with the upper edge of the stoke-hole. They are set all about the fire-chamber--in the end and front and rear walls-and may extend to thecro wn ofthe chamber and'as far forward as the fire-bridge. Air

- from the chamber 0, heated by contact with I thus giving perfect diffusion of the air, and instantaneous and perfect application of the oxygen to the unconsumed and vaporized carbon. Another considerable advantage arises from the inclined position of the walls of the firechamber. As they are sometimes liable to 'melt with the heat, the melted matter, were the walls perpendicular, would run down and clog the opening; but as the wall is inclined the fused matter drops from the edges of the bricks where formed, and does not run down across the mouths of the openings.

In Figsat and 5 I have shown my invention applied to a boiler-furnace. In this the firechamber is shown at A. B B are hollow side walls, and (J is a hollow bridge-wall, hereinafter more fully described. The doors are shown at E E E. The air-chambers a a are in this figure on the sides only, but may be on the front also. Air-passages run from the airchamber downward and open into the ash-pit, as usual. The fine perforations for the admission of air are through the inner walls, I) I). They commence on a line, as shown in Fig. 5, a little below the upper edges of the doors, it being intended that the holes shall always be above the bed of the coal. The holes are shown at 4 4. They are placed as thickly as may be required, and the group extends rearward to the fire-bridge'and upward to the water-line of the boiler, or as far in that direction as may be found necessary. Obviously, regulatingvalves are used to regulate the flow of air to the air-chamber or for excluding it. The operations of the chambers and the action of the fine streams of air projected over the coal and into the vaporized and unconsumed carbon immediately as it rises from the surface of the bed of coal are the same, in the main, as heretofore described in connection with the form of furnace first shown.

The air-holes may be made through the wall in any ordinary way; but I have devised an improved form of brick, which, as laid in the wall, forms holes of proper size and position. These bricks are represented in Figs. 6

and '7. Fig. 7 shows a detached brick, and Fig. 6 a face View of a section of wall composed of such bricks. The brick L has the corner taken 0E and preferably hollowed, so as to make a quarter-circle in every section. The middle part of the brick is grooved above and below longitudinally with half-round grooves h h, or the grooves may be of other desired shapes. hen laid up the bricks form round holes, (if half-round grooves are made,) as shown in Fig.6. The grooves h It may be omitted and the brick made of half the width with the same effect.

My arrangement of the air-holes is capable of wider application than there shown. The general effect of it is to secure the best at tainable combustion of fuel. This is especially desirable in furnaces where impurity in the products of combustion-such as unconsumed carbon, unregulated and unmeasured in amount-affect the iron under treatment as well as occasion a waste of fuel and the objectionable smoke. In a heating-furnace I may extend the group of holes beyond the limit shown in the drawings and as far in front of the hridgewall as may he found desirable.

In a furnace like that shown in Figs. 4 and 5 the parts of the fire-chamber nearest the walls will of course be exposed to the more immediate and thorough action of the fine streams of air, and the unconsumed carbon and other vapors will be there most readily and thoroughly acted on, while the middle regions of the chamber will receive less air and be less thoroughly mixed therewith. In order to equalize this, I enlarge the chamber or arch over the bridge-wall, as shown in Fig. 5, and use hollow grate-bars k k, which extend from the front into the chamber of the bridge, being open at both ends and adapted to conduct air from the outside into the bridgewall chamber. The air is heated through its passage through the bars, reduce their temperature. The air is further heated in the chamber of the bridge-wall, and is thence discharged, through a group of fine holes, m, in the arch, into the products of combustion as they pass over. I have described air as supplied to the fire-chamber; but 1 may supply steam or air and steam through the same openings.

I am aware that air-chambers about the furnace, with perforations opening into the furnace about the tire-wall and at various other points, have been heretofore known, as in British Patent No. 708 of 1855; and I do not broadly claim such openings, limiting my claim to the special arrangement of them herein shown and described.

I claim- In a furnace, the combination, with vertical side walls, B B, and end walls, A, of an interior fire-chamber formed of inclined or converging end and side walls, 0, having numerous horizontal openings connecting the and also serves to.

interior of such fire chamber with the air- Iu'testimony whereofI have signed my name space between such chamber and the outer to this specification in the presence of two subwalls of the furnace, and adapted to discharge scribing witnesses.

air directly into the flame in the fire-chamber, JACOB ALTMEYER. 5 but at a point above the bed of coals 0n the Witnesses:

grate, substantially as and for the purpose set F. L. MIDDLETON,

vr forth. WALTER DONALDSON. 

